It
must seem like this is the year for transgendered
sidekicks. We've seen several so far this year,
Dweena, in last month's "Accessory
to Murder," Steve
Vandertop, in "Practice
to Deceive," and
Lisa Wilson, in the Neil
Albert series. Tonto has never looked so
good! In "Four To
Score," the latest Stephanie Plum
mystery by Janet Evanovitch, Stephanie, a bounty
hunter, is on the trail of an elusive woman,
Maxine, who has a score to settle with her
ex-boyfriend. Maxine has taken some embarrassing
love letters which he wrote and he wants them
back badly for some mysterious reason. She took
his car, was arrested, then skipped out on her
bond, bringing Stephanie into the picture. Maxine
starts leaving cryptic clues in disgusting places
for the ex-boyfriend to find, directing him how
to get to the next one and eventually, the
pictures. Being a dim-witted body builder, he
leaves the decoding to Stephanie.
Stephanie has trouble decoding
the notes also, so when one of her elderly
friends recommends her nephew, she enlists his
aid. She discovers that the nephew performs in a
drag rock band under the name of Sally Sweet. He
is very tall, a la RuPaul, but is quite an ugly
woman. He gets a kick out of helping her, and
invites himself along on several excursions to
track down Maxine. We learn along the way that he
is a heterosexual transvestite (hetero to his
birth gender that is), and Evanovitch does a good
job of making him a sympathetic and engaging
character. Sally is accepted quite well into
Stephanie's offbeat band of misfits, and the door
is left open for future excursions.
That is all fine, but what really
earns this book headline status is the subplot
involving another member of the band, Sugar.
Sugar is the band's lead singer, and Sally's
roommate. Sugar is definitely homosexual, and has
quite a crush on Sally. Sugar dresses up as a
very beautiful woman, and provides us with
several very exciting moments. I can't say more,
but you will enjoy this book. The humor is good,
the action doesn't drag, and we get two different
transgendered characters.
The next book is quite different. It is
"Dreamhouse,"
by Alison Habens. It is the story of a modern day
Alice in Wonderland and is very much as fantastic
as the original. Part of the fun in this book is
figuring out just who Alice really is.
The book centers around four house mates;
Celia, a prissy girl who desperately longs to get
married; Phoebe, a glum lesbian; Cath, a hippie
type who holds an Alice In Wonderland party on
the night this book covers; and Dodge, a hermit
whom the girls almost never see. Celia, Phoebe
and Cath don't get along very well, and things
come to a head when they discover they've each
scheduled a party for the same night. Celia is
holding an engagement party for her family and
her fiance's family, Phoebe is hosting a
welcome-back party for her sister, and Cath is
having the aforementioned masquerade.
On party night things start to get very weird.
Celia leaves her engagement party and visits the
Alice In Wonderland party. Dressed in her usual
overly feminine attire, and with her long blond
hair, she is instantly mistaken for Alice. When
she eats some spiked jam tarts, the world turns
bizarre. Eventually she makes her way down to
Dodge's room where he offers her refuge. Through
his actions, Celia thinks he is in love with her,
but it turns out he actually wants to be
her. Yes, Dodge is a crossdresser and quite
naturally loves how she dresses. She tearfully
switches clothes with him and he goes to the
masquerade party as Alice. Of course,
complications ensue.
This book was a fairly fun read. I generally
lose interest when things get weird and
unbelievable and this tale almost falls into that
category. But the crossdressing spiced it up, and
some serious issues are raised and dealt with in
an amusing way. So I would recommend the book if
you don't mind the sort of psychedelic writing
common in the late 60s. If you prefer more
hard-core stories planted in the real world give
it a pass.
Finally I thought I'd point out a Sherlock
Holmes short story you might have missed. It is
found in the book "The Confidential
Casebook of Sherlock Holmes,"
edited by Marvin Kaye. The book is full of
slightly offbeat and entertaining takes on
Holmes, by contemporary authors. The story of
particular interest to us is "The Affair of
the Counterfeit Countess," by Craig Shaw
Gardner. In it Sherlock Holmes masquerades quite
convincingly as a baroness, to penetrate the
inner circle of a Duke who likes to be surrounded
mostly by women, a desire I'm sure many of us
share! Holmes does his job with his usual
competence, but bites off a little more than he
can chew, as well.
As always, your suggestions
are more than welcome.
Bibliography
Evanovich, Janet, "Four to
Score," St. Martin's Press, 1998, ISBN:
0-312-18586-3 (Hardback)
Habens, Alison,
"Dreamhouse," Picador USA, 1996, ISBN:
031214086X (Hardback)
Habens, Alison,
"Dreamhouse," Picador USA, 1997, ISBN:
0312151144 (Paperback)
Kaye, Marvin (ed), "The
Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes,"
St. Martin's Press, 1998, ISBN: 0-312-18071-3 (Hardback)
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